The Evolving World of Market Research

There is no denying the fact that the market research industry is evolving and changing.

For the most part, we are finally past the days of leaving a facility with a stack of audio cassettes and VHS! I could not help but get a kick out of the amount of e-mails I received touting the new capabilities of digital audio and video recordings. Maybe it is the Gen Y part of our company culture, but I feel as market researcher in such an innovative environment, our industry should be at the cutting edge of advancement. On the flip side, I believe if our clients were demanding that innovation and “push of the envelope” we would have been forced to change as an industry,many moons ago.

That being said, it is such a positive sign to see our clients and companies embracing innovative technology and methodologies! Seeing companies like Skittles and Tide take the leap into SM through Twitter s a sign researchers must be able to use and harness the power of SM. Just this past week at #sxsw we were able to implement social media such as Twitter and Facebook into the complete market research process. Starting with recruiting respondents, progressing through an interactive digital deliverable, we were able to incorporate different elements of social media and “web 2.0” applications to fully give our client an in-depth view of their target market.

As more and more companies begin to reach out to us and others about social media and other ways of advancing their voice, it will be interesting to see the way the MR industry responds. Afterall, when you can incorporate blended techniques and methods to provide a plethora of rich insights to your clients, doing less would be a dis-service. We are constantly evolving and findin new ways of gaining insights, so if you see something new and creative please share it with us! We love hearing from companies and people who can help us offer enhanced solutions to our clients and on the other side, we welcome any questions that you may have! That is truly the essence of what the SM “revolution” is about – a platform for universal info-sharing and collaboration!

If you are interested in finding out more regarding SM tools and how they can effectively be applied, try and join us at the AMA Beyond Borders Summit on April 15th of the DFW UPA Big (D)esign Conference on May 30th. Ben Smithee will be speaking about SM 101 and ways that you can apply different tools in your own company culture and daily life, as well as tools that you can use to add value for your clients. He will also tackle the ever-present challenge of showing the conversion and monetization aspects of SM.